For Valentine's Day, Leopard Came
by yumekutteikiteru
Summary: If you're not following the manga-adaptation of DARREN SHAN SAGA by Takahiro Arai, currently running on Japanese WEEKLY SHONEN SUNDAY manga magazine, this is what happened on a day before Valentine's day 2008. From Darren's POV. Sorry for yaoi/slashiness.


**Disclaimer: ** I don't own "Darren Shan Saga" by Darren Shan nor its manga-adaptation by Takahiro Arai. Excerpts of the dialogues are partly cited from the original novel(Book 8) by Darren Shan, partly derived from my own translation, whichever closer to those Japanese dialogues appeared on the actual manga.

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**For Valentine's Day, Leopard Came**

An arrow swooshed in the air and nearly missed the hairy-vampaneze who was almost finishing me with his hooked-arms. The vampaneze hissed, and fled himself into the dankness-- just as described in Chapter 10 of Book 8.

Oh yes, _here comes the moment_. I knew exactly who shot the arrow and saved my life here.

Just _how couldn't I_? Japanese "Darren Shan Saga" manga readers were chirping "when will _it_ be?" ever since the episode #65 of manga(beginning of Book 8, which is) started, and fan-blogs and forums all went mad speculating about the upcoming episode when WEEKLY SHONEN SUNDAY was released on February 6. "Will _'S'_ appear next week finally?" "From the end of this episode#68, most likely." "Will he be long-haired with ponytail? Really?" and as such. Hey, any comment about me and Debbie on episode#68, anyone??

Okay, now. A week past and it's Wednesday, February 13, 2008. You get a copy of WEEKLY SHONEN SUNDAY #11 released today and check Takahiro Arai's "DARREN SHAN" episode#69. There, I was attacked by Hooky along the way from Debbie's apartment and saved by an arrow. The clouds quietly shifted aside and the moon casted down its light to me softly. Then you flipped the page115 and there was--

A young man, standing atop a brick building and gazing down at me. The whole scene was presented in a fairly large panel, 1 and 1/2 pages to be exact, where his closer look was overlapping the distant view of me and him so I could examine how he looked like in detail. He was dressed in black, with gloves and a long muffler in the same color, holding the arrow-gun on his left arm.

I observed him from the ground and thought--

Who in Charna's name is this _goddamn handsome_!?

If I continue the description, his ash-blonde hair, cut loosely but stylishly in medium shaggy, outlined in dim silver under the serene moonlight. His gray eyes were gloom, somewhat wistful, and his exquisite visage pale blue shadows-- OK, OK, this manga is drawn in black and white so those colors are just my imagination.

It's so breathtakingly picture-perfect. But GIVE ME A BREAK. Who'd ever imagined _him_ to be this _ikemen_(means young, good-looking man in today's Japanese expression), looking even better than Kurda!?

God, this isn't fair. Master Takahiro Arai's drawing technique has improved so quickly and significantly as the series progresses, now that his art is quite sophisticated, one of the cutting-edge to say the least. It means-- the later you appear in the series, the better appearance you can get.

(Well, actually Kurda Smault was drawn as quite handsome and charming, so fans won't be disappointed. And speaking of the looks, Gannen got huge bonus points in episode#64, where he appeared in a cute straight-bob haircut on Vancha's retrospect of their half-vampaneze years. In terms of the cuteness, I believed Cyrus as a girl for a long time because he looked so adorable in Arai's manga.)

Enough said, let's get back to the story-- the jaw-droppingly handsome young man skillfully climbed down the pipe outside the building, bent down to the ground in order to examine the open manhole nearby me and said, "seems he escaped through the sewer..." Oh, that might differ a bit from the Chapter 10 of the original Book 8. Sorry I didn't pay much attention to the first half of this episode.

I was on my wobbly feet and questioned dazedly. "You...you are...?", although I knew the answer.

Then, the man swirled to me, pressing the head of his arrow gun against my chest. We stared each other, my eyes were wide-open-- then, he momentarily closed his eyes, questioning to me. "Does it surprise you that I spared your life?"

"Wha...?" I answered, thinking: _ooh, you look so cool closing your eyes!_

Then he opened his eyes. "Do you know why I saved you?"

"Why...?" Oh, I was so busy watching him I didn't give him an 'out-of-the-goodness-of-your-heart' remark.

There was a pause. "...You don't recognize me?" He continued. "Strange. I never thought you won't recognize me." These sequence were depicted from his back view so we couldn't see his face, much to my dismay.

"Then again, it's been a long time, and I went through those troubled years as you did." Then he raised his left hand, the one which was not holding the arrow gun.

"Look", he said. "Perhaps you remember this."

Here we go. A cross on the flesh of his left palm. My eyes widened in surprise-- isn't it exhilarating that he came up with this odd glove just for me, just for this moment?-- and memories run through my head, which, in this case, is retrieving the several clips way back from the episode#4, where this hideous-looking boy tried to kill me with a stake.

"Steve?" Ending the flashbacks, I exclaimed in bold letters. "Steve...Leonard!!" We only had 2 more pages to go, no time for calling him 'Leopard' then explaining his righteous nickname all over again.

Steve smiled and grabbed my shoulder with his left hand, beaming. "Hi, Darren. Haven't seen you for a long time."

"Oh, Steve!!" I smiled him back, with tears filling up in my eyes.

"Stop that, you'll have me in tears!" Steve replied, with teary eyes as well.

Such a moving reunion but hey, _no hugs_?? Was it because the picture would resemble the another teary hugs I exchanged with Evra in episode#62 too much, maybe? Oh, shoot.

Setting my inner frustration aside, I asked. "Is it really you?!" I mean, _have you went through a plastic surgery or what?_

"Indeed." Steve grinned. "You don't think two people could be born this handsome, do you?"

"You're modest as ever" I replied, though I said to myself: oh, how _true_ is his statement in this case.

"Nothing to be modest about, it's a fact." He laughed out loud.

Then I muttered as if some thought occurred to me. "Do you happen to be here...to kill me?" Then I awkwardly gave him my sheepish smile, as I knew how cute I look when I do that.

"Well...maybe." Steve smirked, casting ominous shadows on his face. "There certainly was a time when my wrath craved for killing you and Mr Crepsley."

My eyes rolled. His chilling smirk almost swooned me!

Steve grinned. "Ha-ha. No, now that I'm into the other side."

"The other...?" I asked, then crouched down with sudden "ow", putting my hand over my injured leg. Oops, was I too obvious?

Luckily, Steve seemed to be unaware of my intention as he threw his right arm around my body-- _yesss!_-- and said, "lean on me so we can get out of here. That vampaneze might come back with friends."

"You know about the vampaneze?!" I gasped, while actually I was concentrating my left arm in order to grab his shoulder firmly so I can get closer to his body.

"Yes," Steve declared proudly and wrapped up the episode#69. "I'm a vampaneze hunter."

I looked up Steve, feeling ravished, as his hand holding on my _waist_-- in the picture it looked as his right arm went all around my back and held the side of my right arm, but in my mind, his hand was on my waist indeed!

It was a day earlier but a perfect Valentine's day gift to us. Thank you, Master Arai. Life is wonderful.

Then, as you all know, our honeymoon period came to an end shortly after, or in episode#73 to be specific. There, Steve made some nasty talks in front of me like, pressing his knife on Debbie's throat, "I'd leave this woman alive and take a very good care of her if you wish."

All I could think of then was-- "Oh Steve. You look _soooo cool _even when you're evil!!"

THE END

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Now I'm living for Wednesday and can't wait to see the volume 8 of the manga(equivalent of the novel Book 8) which is scheduled to be released in May.

無駄に長くなってすみません。サンデー第11号読んだ時の「テライケメンｷﾀ━━━━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━━━━━━━━ !!」感が伝われば幸いです。


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